VISIBILITY
CITY OF TACOMA TWULSHOOTSEED STREET SIGNS PROJECT
PROJECT
In 2017, the Puyallup Tribal Language Program began a seven-year journey in partnership with the City of Tacoma to create Twulshootseed street signs on the Puyallup Reservation.
Language Program Director, Amber Hayward visited her mother’s reservation in Montana regularly and was inspired by all of the Salish & Kootenai language street signs on the reservation. She reached out to Puyallup Tribes Planning and Land Use Director, Andrew Strobel and said we need to make this happen. He immediately put this project in front of the City of Tacoma Planning Department and over the years, a bilingual street sign policy was created to support Twulshootseed revitalization. With the Puyallup Tribal Council’s support, on October 10, 2024, the Tacoma City Council approved the bilingual street sign policy.
On July 21, 2025, the Puyallup Tribal Language Program, in collaboration with the Puyallup Tribe Planning Department and City of Tacoma, unveiled 176 new Lushootseed street signs on the Eastside of Tacoma. Spanning 61 intersections on reservation land, these signs emphasize the Tribe's commitment to not only revitalizing the language, but sharing it with people on the Puyallup Reservation through visibility.
PURPOSE AND WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
The Puyallup Tribal Language Program goals include revitalizing the Twulshootseed language in the Puyallup Tribal community. This includes producing community speakers that use Twulshootseed in their everyday lives for several hours a day. A layer of language revitalization is visibility. This includes seeing Twulshootseed signage on the Puyallup Reservation and in the Pierce County community. This visibility helps to create a healthy space for our ancestral language to grow. It helps non-Natives recognize and respect the First People of this land and our ancestral language. It inspires our community to learn more. By choosing Twulshootseed names from our Creation History for this project, we are laying down the foundation of our beginnings, reclaiming the land, and providing our youth the opportunity to walk tall with an honorable mind, so they won’t be lost in this world.
TWULSHOOTSEED
Upon colonization and white settlement, place names and street names were named after pastəd men. Our ancestral way is to name things after the land and geographic features. Street names on the Eastside of Tacoma have numbers and pastəd men’s names. The Language Program staff brainstormed ideas to replace, not translate current street names that are meaningful to our people. The decision was made to pull names from our Creation History - dukʷibəɫ, the Changer and all of his encounters as he changed things into what they are today. (For more information about dukʷibəɫ and our Creation History, click here)
28 names were chosen:
| English | Lushootseed | Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Bear | sčətxʷəd | |
| Beaver | st’qəxʷ | |
| Blue Heron | sbəq’ʷəʔ | |
| Blue Jay | skaykay | |
| Bracken Fern Root | t’ədiʔ | |
| Bullfrog Lady | c’ulsxʷayəʔ | |
| Cedar Limbs | stidigʷəd | |
| Changer/Transformer | dukʷibəɫ | |
| Deer | sqigʷəc | |
| Dog Salmon | ƛ’xʷayʔ | |
| Eagle | yəx̌ʷuləʔ | |
| Elk | kʷagʷičəd | |
| Go Ahead | hiwil | |
| Inner Cedar Bark | slagʷac | |
| Little Sisters | suq’ʷsuq’ʷaʔ | |
| Mink | c’əbalqid | |
| Moon | sɫukʷalb | |
| Mountain Goat | sx̌ʷiƛ’ayʔ | |
| Phalarope/Water Bird | šišulc’ | |
| Raven | skʷaqʷ | |
| Red Eyed Star | x̌ikʷiƛ’alus | |
| Rock | č’əƛ’əʔ | |
| Rope | t’əbiɫəd | |
| Salmon | sčədadxʷ | |
| Stick | st’ək’ʷəb | |
| Sun | ɫukʷaɫ | |
| Swing | yəyʔduʔad | |
| White Eyed Star | txʷəyalus |
WHERE YOU WILL SEE THIS PROJECT
On the Puyallup Reservation in Tacoma, between I-5 to S. 38th Street and from Portland Avenue to Grandview Drive. The Twulshootseed signs will appear along 28 roadways and 61 intersections, with 176 signs.
Caption: On July 21, 2025, the Language Program staff hosted the unveiling event in full-immersion Twulshootseed with English translators, sharing the history of the Star Husband and the Bird Children, on the cross street of E Wright Ave (šišulc’ – phalarope) and E Roosevelt Ave (suq’ʷsuq’ʷaʔ - little sisters), with Puyallup Tribal Council members and Tacoma City Council members in attendance.